Serve

James Crabtree is currently in Melbourne Park covering the Australian Open for Tennis Grandstand and is giving you all the scoop directly from the grounds.

By James Crabtree

MELBOURNE — History was not on the side of Canadian Milos Raonic. In fact when the vast majority of the tour face Federer, statistics and history are not on their side.

No Canadian, not including defectors, had ever made it to a grand slam quarter final. Federer on the other hand has reached the grand slam quarterfinals 34 consecutive times. That is 136 victories, a hefty number to shift, meaning Federer doesn’t lose unless his opponent truly deserves to be there. It also means that Federer is a perfect employee, never taking a day off.

The big Canuck is an interesting specimen, duly if Andy Roddick and Richard Krajicek had a baby, Milos Raonic would be the result, although no speculation exists for that union to ever take place.

Indeed, if you squinted your eyes and used your imagination only slightly, you might well have been watching a Federer Roddick match, and the result of those was usually fail-safe.

This was never going to resemble a clay court match, with Milos going for glory early with big serves or cracking groundstrokes, knowing full well if he tried to out rally he was doomed. Federer meanwhile relished the ball in play, bullying the Raonic backhand every chance he had.

“I think I played tactically well tonight and was able to keep the points short on my own service games, used the 1-2 punch. That was obviously also a good thing tonight.” Federer stated in his post match press conference.

Quickly Federer started to read the massive Raonic serve, although initially he could only muster a block return although instinctively returning the ball from within the baseline.

Raonic was in trouble when 2-3 down in the first set facing a few break points. Calmly he fired two Sampras style aces, causing all worry of a break to simply vanish.

At 4-5 the tension built again, giving Federer a set point. As has so often been the case the computer assistance was switched on, unfairly in Federer’s advantage, prompting Raonic to net a relatively easy volley.

Of considerable interest is Federer’s chameleon approach, feeling the need to better his opponent when it comes to their particular strength. To which Federer stated, “Important obviously was first to focus on my own serve before even thinking about how to return Milos. But I did a good job tonight. As the match went on, I started to feel better. But that’s kind of normal.”

The second set continued much like the first although Raonic held his nerve longer. This time the set wasn’t decided until 3-3 in the tiebreak. Federer took the advantage by delivering a Wawrinka inspired backhand down the line that could only make you wonder if great backhands were given away for free in Swiss cereal boxes.

Federer’s scream of joy directed towards his entourage was heard throughout the arena, whilst Raonic ambled despondently to his chair, with more on mind his than just the overwhelming score line. Raonic told reporters, “well, long story short, until probably 45 minutes to an hour before the match, I wasn’t even sure I’d play. I rushed over to get a quick MRI on my foot. I was having issues walking. I got the clear to play after that. I just had an anaesthesia injection into my foot. I was given the go to play.”

Subsequently Raonic stumbled to open the third set, and kept on stumbling. Federer meanwhile was on autopilot, treating the crowd to a level of on court purity that only a very small amount of players experience, breezing to victory 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.

“Most of the times you play good, you know. When you play very good, that’s rare. So just have to try to have as many good days or great days as you can, and that’s why I push hard in practice and keep myself in shape.”

Federer faces Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round marking his 35th straight quarterfinal.

David Ferrer has been an elite top ten player for a considerable amount of time. He has made four grand slam semi-finals and won three Davis Cup titles for Spain.

He has also won eighteen career titles and leads the 2012 tour with titles won in Paris, Valencia , Bastad , s-Hertogenbosch , Acapulco , Buenos Aires and Auckland . If you weren’t counting that is seven titles and on every surface.

Not bad for a guy who could have ended up on a building site.

Wikipedia

“Once, as a teenager, when Ferrer did not practice hard enough, his coach, Javier Piles, locked him in a completely dark 2m x 2m ball closet for several hours, giving him only a piece of bread and a bit of water. After this incident he was fed up with tennis and went to work at a construction site, but after a week he returned to Piles and asked if he could remain at the club and play tennis. As of 2012, he is still coached by Piles and has said he considers him a second father.”

Simply put Ferrer is a player who has become a tennis master on the grandest of stages because of necessity. Not only does he have the talent, but also the determination needed to match it to become successful. It is obvious that he has found his resolve from hours and hours on the practice court then consistently polished it to a winning formula when the points have counted. Judgement and retort, dependability and dexterity. The guy’s feet never ever stop moving, even on a changeover.

But should David Ferrer be an elite player? Well, no, depending on whom you ask?

For a start experts believe an elite player should be 6’1 or taller and they should possess a dominant serve. The majority of technicians believe a player should hit the forehand with a circular ark. Fans believe a player should have one dominate stroke that strikes fear into any foe.

On the face of it David Ferrer has none of these attributes. For a start he is listed at the most popular actor height of 5’9, which puts him at eye level with Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro. He isn’t intimidating like Del Potro, flashy like Tsonga or powerful like Berdych. In fact of all men ranked within the top 10 some would argue that Ferrer is the least talked about. He doesn’t have a dominate stroke and he scurries around the court in between points like a man without a coat on a cold winters night.

However during point play the scurrying takes on a whole new form. His side stepping baseline coverage beggars belief. Most importantly he takes charge when returning serve. Statistically speaking in 2012 he ranked within the top five for points won on the first serve, second serve and return games won. He is fourth on the all-time list of career return games won, winning 35%. In layman’s terms the servers are under pressure. Once the ball comes back the pressure is compounded by the consistent grinding that has been the major characteristic of his career, and the success of his most recent win in Paris.

A career that could have been very different, it’s safe to say that this determined little Spaniard has made the right choice in pursuing a professional tennis career over that of a very different sort of grind.

DENVER – Roger Federer used his blistering and effective serve to win his seventh Wimbledon title this month. Jeff Salzenstein, the former top 100 ATP Tour singles and doubles player and noted tennis instructor, is committed to teaching YOU how to hit a Federer-like serve.

“Roger Federer has an almost perfect serve combining all the correct elements to have a great delivery,” said Salzenstein. “The serve secrets featured in my free video series helped me break the top 100 on the ATP Tour for the first time at the age of 30 and helped me hit a 136 mile per hour serve at the BNP Paribas Open at age 32. It has also helped me transform and improve the serves of hundreds of players over the last few years.”

Salzenstein’s first video lesson teaches players how to focus on the start of the serve including the proper Federer stance, to get the serve moving in the right direction. In the second video lesson, Salzenstein reveals one of hs most powerful drills called the “dirty diaper” which will help you discover the proper swing to generate more topspin and kick on your serves. The third serve lesson completely breaks down “the trophy position” that all good servers need to have to have a dominating serve, while the fourth lesson features more valuable information on Salzenstein’s serve secrets along with a special bonus announcement.

A USTA-certified High Performance tennis coach and a certified nutritional therapy practitioner, Salzenstein is regarded as one of the best coaches in the world. Jeff has always been an intense student of the game and coaches players of all levels in his hometown of Denver, Colorado. He played in the main draw of all four Grand Slam tournaments, extending world No. 2 Michael Chang to 6-4 in the fourth-set in a wildly entertaining second-round night match at the US Open in 1997. His professional career extended from 1996 until 2007, earning a top 100 ranking that included practicing with and playing matches against the likes of Federer, Chang, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Patrick Rafter, James Blake, Mardy Fish, David Nalbandian, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga among many others.

Salzenstein was known for his unwavering determination, perseverance and intelligence in maximizing his abilities and talents as a player and now brings his passion for tennis into the world of coaching. After enjoying a successful USTA national junior tennis career where he finished 1992 ranked No. 2 in the boys’ 18 singles rankings, he played No. 1 singles for Stanford University and helped his team to a pair of NCAA team titles in 1995 and 1996. He also enjoyed tremendous success on the USTA Pro Circuit, winning numerous singles and doubles titles on the at the Challenger level. He sat out most of the 1998 and 1999 seasons with knee, back and ankle injuries, but became the first American to break into the top 100 of the ATP Tour rankings after the age of 30 in 2004. His best ATP Tour result came in reaching the semifinals of Delray Beach, Fla., in 2004, beating Greg Rusedski en route.

Since leaving the pro circuit, Salzenstein founded JRS Sports, LLC, an organization focused on helping tennis players all over the world improve their tennis through online tennis instruction in the areas of technique, footwork, nutrition, injury prevention, motivation, and athletic development. His www.JeffSalzensteinTennis.com website has become a vibrant online tennis instructional portal that is setting a new standard in online tennis instruction. Salzenstein has 6,000 free subscribers to his online video tutorial website. He has over 120 instructional tennis lessons on YouTube with almost 1.5 million views in the last 18 months alone.

Salzenstein also has a successful membership site called “The Total Tennis Training Inner Circle” that has over 400 members from more than 25 countries. Salzenstein launched his first online tennis course, “The Tennis Forehand Solution,” in 2011 which has gained an impressive following around the world with more than 1,000 subscribers.